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entertainment1 hour ago
Noticing the low reading levels among the Arab youth, a UAE-based couple launched an app to introduce a modern storytelling style in the Middle East.
The Hakawaty (storyteller) app narrates different stories in a chat-format that goes on between two people. The app's founder and CEO Motaz Matar, attributed the low reading levels among Arab youth to the lack of finding a new platform that makes reading fun.
"The quick-paced lifestyle and the phone addiction have made young people lose interest in reading novels. They want something fast and fun," said Motaz, a scriptwriter and film director, who launched the app with his wife Liz Matar.
"Arabs love to chat and they love good anecdotes which many find in Turkish series that has gained immense popularity in the Middle East lately."
Hakawaty, the first Arab chat fiction mobile app, is designed to look like a messaging app - reminiscent of WhatsApp - allowing the user to watch two people messaging one another in different story genres. A three to five-minute-long story is told one message at a time, and users can expect to read chats that form horror stories, romance, science fiction, drama, and mystery.
One such chat gives a modern and fiction twist to the populated classic love story of Qais and Layla (widely known as Layla and Majnun), making the character of Layla a vampire.
Another series "Love in Global Village" has the chat relevant to the UAE residents. So far, the multimedia platform has featured 14 series and over 60 episodes, with new stories adding up each day, Liz noted.
The interactive app features stories in slang Arabic dialect to make it more relatable to the youth. Chats also include photos, audio, and video. The app is free to download, requiring a $2 week subscription to access content available on Google Play and Apple Store.
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com
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